my kitchen counter being clean and no dishes in the sink reduces my stress. being I work 12 hour shifts, getting every possible moment of sleep is important. but, if I stop and load my dishes in the dishwasher I am not as stressed when I wake up or when I come home. weird.
not exercising before work reduces my stress. weird, right? but I have realized something about it wound me up and it made me anxious walking into the office. of course, working there at all causes a lot of anxiety in general. of course, I need to find a way to introduce my exercising back into my days. not sure how yet.
spending many hours the night before my first night of work making food for my lunches and pastries in stressful. not having good food to eat isn’t better, but I felt this pressure to spend all my time cooking when we all know I hate cooking. made me not even want to bake.
leaving my clean scrubs on the floor of my room instead of folding them and putting them away reduces my stress. I am not sure why but I HATE folding scrubs. yuck.
I applied for a new job today. it was sort of a result of a random text exchange trying to make plans with my friend Andrea. she mentioned she had been working in the interventional radiology department as a float. I find the work fascinating. she said they were looking for people. I said tell your boss I am interested! her boss text be like 30 min later. I went in to talk to the director and the manager the next morning after work. did a job shadow on friday. it was FASCINATING. I saw them suck clots out of a guys brain! he was awake! the clots were HUGE! after it was done he already had about 90% of his original functioning back on the effected side. THEY. MADE. BLOOD. FLOW. IN. HIS. BRAIN. AGAIN! so cool. it is day shift. 5 days a week.it will be weird going to 5 days. I am little nervous about my knowledge base (generally people are from critical care (ICU, ED) and I work in acute care (though the pts on PCU have a very high acuity, so, I am used to sick people). in fact, I had a pt last night who kept going into SVT! HR jumping from 110 to 170! she said she felt fine. I really liked her. could have done without the c-diff though.
going to see NIN in Philadelphia with my playmate. yeah, I know, big risk. when I sent him my flight details I stated that traveling with someone, I feel, is the biggest test to any type of relationship. he bought tickets on the same flights. we will see how it goes. I am OVER THE MOON to see NIN after so long. it will be nice to be able to express all that pent-up emotion once we get back to the airbnb as well.
I GET TO GO TO THE MUELLER MUSEUM FINALLY!
snape having gone to live with my friend Fred’s mom Susan reduces my stress. snape was an asshole at my place. she did obnoxious things just to annoy me and harassed gandalf. apparently she is perfect at Susan’s house. she gets all the attention and Susan is delighted to have her and Susan’s friends are totally into hearing the latest on snape. snape also loves laying there bathroom floor as the hot water pipes run under it and keep it warm.
in my everlasting search for a good night’s sleep I have discovered Three Spirit beverages and it’s sleep enhancing flavor. (picture of bottle below) it was described to me by one of the baby nurses as alcohol-free booze. like a fancy mixed drink without the booze, is probably a better way to explain it. and I think it helps. I have had a drink before bed for 3 shifts and I have been very awake for all 3 shifts. like people were like, “um, heather, why are you so bouncy?” anyhow, I recommend it.
I went to visit my friend Steve in Indianapolis in february. or was it march? I don’t remember. I flew up to go to his DJ night. I had a FANTASTIC time! Steve is an excellent host. we ate amazing food. he friend’s were super nice. his teenage daughters were super cool (one of them even had a ghost purse like it was the big sister of my small ghost coin case!) each of the DJs that played were totally unique. it was different. when I go to clubs with DJs each DJ is different but still well within the genre. these DJs had totally different styles. it was a great night. then I flew home. of course, steve and I did dress up in our onesies for fun!
having laundry in compact piles separated by load reduces my stress. although, stuff all over the floor of my bed room stresses me out, if it laundry that is separated, it actually reduces stress. perhaps because it has the anticipation of being clean laundry? of course I hate folding scrubs, but, I enjoy folding sheets/blankets. sheets because patrick taught me to how to fold a fitted sheet before I moved to austin. blankets because then I get a “linens set” together that I get to put in my linen closet and I can pull as a pre-made set to change my sheets. which I do every other Wednesday. yep, I am THAT organized.